Khaptain

Got this one painted up tonight so I thought Id post it up too. Without further adue, the third hand Turret Ironclad, Khaptain.



The model is that of the infamous and unique British warship HMS Captain. For those that dont know the fatefull history of this ship she was designed as the royal navys first large oceangoing warship to mount its main battery in the revolutionary revolving turret. It was the grand design of the famous Captain Cowper Coles, the man responceable for the Coles turret. It was built as a responce to public and political pressure rather than because the admeralty wanted it. Although a valid but kinda 'out there' design, errors were made in construction that resulted in her having a dangeriously low freeboard, be dangeriously overweight and have a dangeriously high center of gravity. She passed her trials, but within months of her launch she capsized in mild seas in the Bay of Biscay with the loss of all but 18 crew (her compliment was over 500). This caused reprocussions in British Naval History, with the admeralty gaining greater control over themselves (they blamed the deaths on the fact the ship was built due to public pressure) and in general the total falure of this state-of-the-art ship led the admeralty to avoid adopting new developments in technology without the greatest of caution.




Clealy though, I appear to have modeled this sunken ship and placed it in Russian Survice. I did this for two reasons - First, I really liked the ship and the model (from Tumbling Dice) and Second, I needed a major capital ship to bulk up the Russian Black Sea Fleet for a Ottoman/Russian naval campain that I am going to run for my friends.

So, I present the following counter-factual situation to allow the HMS Captain to become the Khaptain;

Rather than being lost at sea, the Captain of the Captain, took the desision to run the ship aground, wrecking her on the Southern Cost of France. In the insueing politcal arguments over the disaster, the disision is made not to recover the ship and to sell her off to avoid further embarisment. She would most probably end up in the hands of the French and then move from there into Russian hands.